


Complication

by Copper_mouth



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Haunting, Horror, How Do I Tag, Identity Issues, Loss of Identity, Psychological Horror, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 16:21:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21323104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Copper_mouth/pseuds/Copper_mouth
Summary: Something - someone - is haunting the Winter Soldier.
Kudos: 3





	Complication

**Author's Note:**

> I just got stuck on the idea of the Winter Soldier being haunted by the "ghost" of Bucky Barnes, and what that would feel like for him. Honestly, I'm hoping someone else will (or already has) worked with this idea and fleshed it out more than I did, 'cause this is all I got.

He tells them about the complication. 

“Someone is inside of me,” he says. 

They take care of it. 

  


He tells them about the complication, and the conversation brushes up against something in his mind. 

“A person is in my head,” he says. 

They frown, but they take care of it. 

  


The complication is still there. He trips over the word “still” when he tells them. 

“It’s still there,” he says. “I can feel him.” 

They are worried now, and angry. He doesn’t feel anything for a very long time. 

  


He lands on his knees, fingers clawing into his hair as he digs. 

“Get out,” he tries to say, but he can barely breathe. 

The wetness is back on his face. 

The thing inside of him is growing, reaching, trying to claw its way out. 

“No!” he gasps, and he pushes. 

They’d never gotten rid of it before, he understands now, only hidden it out of sight. 

He curls around it with all his strength as it writhes and bucks beneath him, unnaturally strong. Finally, he’s able to shove it back down into the hole it climbed out of, and he buries it, desperately, heaping the rubble on top of it. 

  


When he wakes up, everything is quiet. 

He doesn’t see it anymore. 

He tries to relax into the stillness, tries to recenter his control. But something prevents him. 

Restlessly, he shifts, starting to try again, when something flickers in the corner of his mind, almost out of sight. 

He looks at the pile of debris he’d buried the man under. Nothing seems out of place, everything is silent, nothing moves. 

But – 

There’s a feeling, telling him he should turn around, slowly at first, until – 

_ The man is right behind him. _

He’s surrounding him, expanding to fill everything, he’s _in_ him – ! 

He opens his mouth to scream as his heart pounds, once, flooding fear throughout his system, then his eyes roll back and he’s swallowed up in an instant. 

_Then _ he screams, but it’s as if water was surrounding him, muffling him – he tries to pound against the barrier but his arms are too weak, they can barely move. 

He can see himself, as if from a great distance, thrashing, mouth open and eyes wide, and the terror he feels at being outside of himself looking on is the greatest horror he’s ever known. 

Nothing has ever filled him with fear like this before, yet he _recognizes_ this. It’s familiar, it’s what has been hanging over his shoulders to disappear a split second after he turns around, and, and – 

  


This time when he opens his eyes, he knows for sure that no one is inside of him. 

He ponders the sensation for a moment, then turns to where the other is waiting. 

There is no one inside of him, because he is right in front of him. 

They stand in the shadows, facing each other, until as one they begin to step closer. 

Panic is winding up sickeningly hot into his throat, but his hands aren’t shaking. 

Fear builds into a blinding pain behind his eyes and he can barely _see_, but – his breathing is even. 

His heart refuses to beat as fast as he needs it to go, and he gasps, but his body won’t listen to him now, and his feet carry him steadily closer, and his hand reaches out inexorably to the figure stepping out from the darkness and their _fingers_ are _meeting_, and – 

Oh. 

He’s looking at himself. 

The other – it’s _him._


End file.
